


Stranger Shores

by sister_wolf



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-15
Updated: 2006-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-12 03:49:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/120424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sister_wolf/pseuds/sister_wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will was perfectly certain they weren't anywhere near New Guinea, despite Jack's breezy assurances to the contrary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranger Shores

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline indeterminate, but probably set during the first movie. An odd little ficlet, written a few years ago and brushed off for public consumption. The painting this is based on is _Sentinels_ , by Michael Whelan.

Will was perfectly certain they weren't anywhere near New Guinea, despite Jack's breezy assurances to the contrary.

At some point during the journey north from Hispaniola, after the massive storm that had swept them wildly off course to the northwest, the sea had... changed. He wasn't quite sure how, but where they were now wasn't where they had been, or perhaps where they had been wasn't quite in the same place as where they were now. Will got all tangled up in the explanation, unable to express his bone-deep certainty that they were no longer in their own world.

Jack had thanked him quite seriously for a fine tall-tale and then laughed and slapped him on the ass. Among all the other things that were disturbing the hell out of Will, the ass-slapping was actually becoming rather disturbingly normal.

Jack had denied all evidence that the world around them had changed. According to him, the glowing, 12-tentacled _things_ they could see all around them in the water at night were common jellyfish, and the oddly multicolored fish they caught on the trailing lines off the bow were "rainbow trout." Will had a sneaking suspicion that trout were a freshwater fish, but was willing to let the matter lie rather than to expose his ignorance. However, he was absolutely certain that the winged lizards that landed on the ship's rigging and watched them work with strangely intelligent eyes were _not of this world_.

This, though-- this was the final proof. Will pointed triumphantly to the massive statues rising from the rocky beach before them. Each statue was more than the height of ten grown men, with the body of a crouching human, wings spread across its back like a cloak, and a hawk's head. "Now will you concede that we have sailed off course into an unknown world?"

"Nonsense." Jack lifted his spyglass to one eye, squinted, and swayed back and forth for a few moments. "Aztec, by the look of 'em. We must be off the coast of Venezuela. You've obviously gone sun-mad. Take two cups of rum and call me in the morning." He winked, slapped Will on the ass, and lurched off towards the wheelhouse, humming a sprightly jig.

Will sighed and eyed a nearby winged lizard. "I don't care what Jack says. You are _not_ a pelican with the mange."

The lizard trilled sweetly and seemed to smirk at him before launching itself off the rigging with a flutter of golden wings.


End file.
